


Leverage

by JackoLillee



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, BDSM, Bisexuality, Bullying, Dom/sub, Dubious Consent, Extremely Dubious Consent, F/M, Gossip, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Nudity, Power Dynamics, Semi-Public Sex, Touch-Starved
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-17 17:21:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16100255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackoLillee/pseuds/JackoLillee
Summary: It'd started as a game.Little touches, playful tickles; surprise hugs. Rin knew about all that. Their now deceased sensei had been the only one Kakashi would let touch him. They'd always been close.But when she hears rumors of Kakashi participating in dangerous, sexual games during his missions with ANBU, she begins to worry. There's something he's not telling her. Something that she fears he's been chasing, trying to reenact with his new teammates, something that's already happened. Between him and Minato."It was the giddiness that stopped her. Evident not so much in a way of speaking, but rather in the way his eyes seemed to be smiling all the time whenever she saw him lately. Smiling. Or squinting in a grimace that was the closest her pale-faced friend could falsify into the appearance of a grin behind that dark mask of his. Something wasn't right."Kakashi begins to explore his sexuality in a way that isn't safe, putting his reputation, his life on the line-all so he can, for the barest of moments, find some sort of understanding about the games him and Minato used to play in the final years of his sensei's life. Will he be destroyed by his hunger for love? Will Rin be able to save him?





	1. One

* * *

 

_**"Love That Hurts" - ZHU ft. Karnaval Blues & Indiana **_

* * *

 

_..._

**_Leverage_ **

_..._

_The moon was a sliver in the sky. Thin and paling._

_It matched the reflection Kakashi saw in the mirror, standing alone in the dark in his bathroom. He looked like a ghost, dead-eyed and waif boned. His eyes moved to his lips, flat and expressionless like a fish, and he felt a shiver of dread. Raising the fingertips of his left hand to the beauty spot along his jaw, then up and across to cover his natural eye, the one without the Sharingan, he let loose a low sigh._

_Lately, he'd begun to look different. To feel different in his body. He knew this was to be expected, ever since he was little he'd wanted to be bigger. Taller. Stronger._

_But, he hadn't predicted feeling so uncomfortable. The unpredictable breaks in his deepening voice, making it so it was impossible to take anything he said seriously. The way all his weight had seemed to drop off him in a night, leaving all his limbs frail looking and girlish. He washed his face frenetically, knowing he was at the age where pimples and scraggly hairs were supposed to strike, yet so far his face remained somehow unaffected. He dreaded the day when it wouldn't._

_Sighing one more time, brows scrunching as he dropped his own gaze, Kakashi felt incredibly ugly. He wondered if his dad had known he would turn out this way, if that was why as a child he'd been forced to wear a mask. Sakumo had said it was for his own protection, but Kakashi really wasn't sure about that._

_The few times anybody had seen his face the reaction had always been the same. The wide eyes. The splotchy color rising in the neck and cheeks. The staring._

_The staring was the worst._

_It made him feel like a monster. Something vile and grotesque. And, raising his eyes back up to his reflection with a small bite of his lips, the Copy-Ninja flushed himself. Who wanted to inspire a reaction like that? It was like being the only one naked._

_Everyone else wore their face just fine, even those that others talked about or called names-like Gai-they all lived their days without hiding behind a mask. Yet, even when he was alone in the dark, just staring at his long face in the mirror it made him flinch. Lately he felt like he could get lost in it, scoping his own self for imperfections. Flaws._

_He rolled up his mask. Turned away from the mirror, silvery bangs hanging in his eyes. Left the bathroom with a quick, embarrassed step._

_If he didn't leave now, he'd be late._

_..._

_(One Year Later)_

 He was running late, but only by an hour or so.

Pushing the sleek fronds of bamboo leaves apart easily, sixteen year old Kakashi made his way through the damp, muddy back-trails of Konoha's underbrush. It was nearly three thirty three in the morning, the air cool with mist and speckled with the light chirp of crickets. The moon was a fat, golden glow that slatted down over his hair and shoulders through the dappling of branches and leaves above him. 

Already he could hear the distant sounds of loud, pulsing music and see the flickering orange fringe of torchlight as he approached. The party itself was in a secret location in the woods. Hidden.

What Aoba, a fellow jonin who was on Kakashi's new team, had described as "low key".

This would be his first time meeting all the members of his new team at the same time. He was the only recruit and youngest by every other member by far. The second youngest, a rebellious senbon-user who wore his hitae-ate tied backwards like a hat, was only three years older than himself. He'd been the one to recommend Kakashi for audition. 

Having just turned sixteen last month, the Copy-Ninja was the youngest recorded member on the elite assassination force. Something that was hardly new for him, having been promoted to chunin at six years old and jonin at thirteen, he was used to being the youngest person in almost any given situation. 

But, creeping up steadily to the undercover party, he felt an unmistakable wobble of nervousness seep through his gut.

Being the youngest in a fight? No problem. Being the youngest at a party where the attendees were a mix of shinobi who only bothered with missions that were unranked or S-level, and civilians linked inexplicably to the underground grapevine-all of them there to get shit-faced-That was another matter entirely. 

Stepping into the ring of torchlight that marked the perimeter of the party, Kakashi looked up and saw an old, graffiti laced house with three levels staring right back at him. It looked haggard and derelict with chipped stone wall faces and missing shingles, but something about the rickety structure oozed wickedness and familiarity simultaneously. It's energy almost like the spooky vibe of a graveyard, the silver-haired jonin could tell that it'd been the host of many a midnight reverie. 

Throngs of people were dispersed throughout the premises, many of them winding and gyrating to the music, smoking, talking, and laughing. Someone had set up strobe lights that swept and flickered through the building and into the misty night surrounding. Several people dressed in scantily thrown together outfits were dancing with vibrant, neon lit fans. 

Almost everyone was holding some sort of drink.

Kakashi froze, having just stumbled upon the scene, and he looked around himself quietly. So, this was what being young was like. 

Everyone seemed to really be enjoying it. 

He watched as two kunoichi started a dance-off, their sandals slapping and skating across the bobbing surface of a leaf-strewn pool. One of them shimmied free of her top and the other pressed up behind her, hands stroking her body. Kakashi looked away hurriedly, wide eyed and more embarrassed than they were.

But, just as he was turning on his heel to leave for the seclusion of the unlit forest behind him, a raucous yell from the second story porch snagged his focus.

"Yo! Kakashi!" Genma Shiranui's raspy voice called out to him, "What took you so long?"

Shoulders relaxing a little, the Copy-Ninja turned back around and, weaving through people and smoke, made his way towards his new teammate's voice. Into the lower level of the building, where the insulation had been torn out and thrown about the scuffed floor in chunks and people crowded round a long table throwing ping-pong balls at each other's cups. On his way to the stairs, Kakashi passed a group of shadowy figures taking turns snorting thin lines of white powder from a glass-surface table. 

About midway up the stairs he nearly got caught in a fight between two civilians. A boy chasing after his apparent girlfriend, who was screaming at him and throwing pieces of her weave she'd torn out. Kakashi slyly extended one foot and the boy tripped over his ankle, abruptly falling with a crash and a short-lived scream through the banister and out of sight. Everyone jammed into the stairwell winced and the girl dropped her chunks of hair, smiling beautifically, raised her arms like 'Well then'. The sixteen year old allowed her to hug him, pressing a lip-gloss sticky kiss to his masked cheek, and then, rubbing the back of his neck where she clung to him, proceeded to the second flight with a shrug.

As soon as he stepped into the room he was greeted by Genma, who was sitting on the armrest of an old and sunken brown couch spread, characteristic senbon jutting from between his lips jauntily. Kakashi made his way through more dancing, talking, and laughing people with the girl trailing behind him holding his gloved hand loosely. 

"What's cup." Genma's chin cocked and when the silver-haired teen moved to catch the other's hand he caught Genma's red solo cup instead. Shrugged.

Tugging his mask down a little, he leaned his head back and took a long sip, wincing and shivering with a sharp cough as the spiced tang of jager & ginger beer sloshed over his tongue, burning his nose. He rolled his mask back up and nodded, passing the drink back to the grinning senbon-user. 

Genma pointed with a flick of the senbon between his teeth towards the far corner of the layout, nodding as he said.

"Drinks. Over there, help yourselves."

"Thanks bunny." The girl holding Kakashi's hand blew Genma a kiss and, fingers slipping through Kakashi's loose hold, stalked over to the bar. Both boys followed the swivel of her hips as she walked away.

"Nice." said Genma.

"Hm." said Kakashi.

"Right!" the already somewhat blurry eyed senbon-user clapped his hands together loudly, "Well, the new boy is here so everybody say hi. Play nice."

'He's a virgin.' added the now snorting shinobi from where he sat, somehow balancing his cup on the top of his capped head while flowing his hands in a blocky dance round his cheeky grin. 

Kakashi paled beneath the multi-colored sweep of the strobe-lights. 

"Uh..." He said looking down and to the side awkwardly, hands in his pockets, "Thanks Genma."

Several of the people squished together on the old sofa laughed.  One of them, a girl sitting on the edge of the couch, smirked and leaned forwards to shake his hand.

"Welcome to the team, virgin." she grinned appreciatively, sipping from her drink as her eyes flickered up and down his body, "I'm Azuna." Then.

"You've got a face that makes me want to pee."

The boys seated around her, the rest of the team, all laughed bawdily, a few of them slapping their knees or her back as she smiled at Kakashi, kissing at him once sultrily. The Copy-Ninja laughed a little nervously, adjusted his mask against the bridge of his nose and hoped no one noticed him blushing. 

"Aw, man don't let her talk to you like that," a boy he recognized from a few grades older than him in the Academy leaned forwards and extended his hand, "she'll walk right over you. Raido, by the way. Think we've seen each other around."

"Yeah."

Kakashi breathed, still feeling nervous. Gripped Raido's hand in a snug dap.

The boy sitting next to him said nothing, merely sat looking at Kakashi inquisitively. He had long dark hair, most of it pulled back in a messy man-bun, and a handsome face that looked like it didn't give a fuck. He looked to be more than a few years older than the rest.

"This is Kaede. The captain." Another boy on the side of said ANBU captain gestured with a thumb and a nod of his head. He also looked familiar to Kakashi, with sleek framed sports sun-glasses and a crooked collar, "Think we've met briefly. Aoba."

Kakashi nodded and tried not to show how uncomfortable he was. Why didn't his captain say anything? 

"And, guess no one's gonna introduce me!" The last boy in the group huffed exaggeratedly, his brawny build flexing as he crossed his arms in annoyance, "Daiki Maki. Team counselor." he took a drink from his cup and burped, laughing, "Nah, just kidding, just kidding-If you ever come to me with your feelings I'll bust your ass."

Daiki's voice flattened into a deadly threat at the end, and he half-slyly cast an appreciative glance at Kakashi's backside around another quick sip. Everyone else laughed again and Genma wheeled back around to face Kakashi, perched cross-legged on the sofa arm cushion.

"Soo, yah." he said, "Welcome to the team, sport."

"Thanks." Kakashi said, hands back in his pockets, "I-" but Kaede, the team captain interrupted him with a low spoken question.

"Fish." he said, looking Kakashi up and down, "Nice making chum. But, can it pull any tricks other than being young?"

Kakashi's ears flamed, and it took all of his fortitude not to wince. He slid his gaze levelly to Kaede's unimpressed dark glare.

 "If I said no, would you really believe me?" 

At this, the squad captain's full lips split into an uneven grin. Kaede rubbed his hands together, head bowed, and then he looked up at Kakashi again.

"Gut me there, cools. You might just bend to grow on me."

Kakashi, not really knowing whether he was being made fun of or not, simply raised his gloved hand to shake. Kaede gripped it with a twist like he was opening a door and let go before the Copy-ninja could register the pain.

Genma and Aoba were laughing again, Azuna smirking at the interaction.

"Very well." said Kaede finally with a nod to the civilian girl who'd just reappeared by Kakashi's side with two overflowing drinks in her hands, "Enjoy the party. Play nice. Everyone, we meet tomorrow outside the Black Ops Municipal Building at ten." and then, with a sharply discerning glance at Kakashi,

"Don't be late, pretty boy."

...

* * *

 

...

 Lying awake in her bed, Rin Nohara wrestled with her thoughts and hugged her pillow tighter.

It seemed like lately anytime she tried to fall asleep she was begotten with worries. Worries about her job at the hospital, worries about her aging mother, worries about rent and money; worries about worrying too much and getting wrinkles. And, her favorite mental torment to burn herself with, worries about a particular silver-haired boy with the surgically implanted eye of her best friend now two years dead. 

It'd been so long since she'd spoken to him.

Rarely, did she see him now. Not for lack of information, she knew very well that, if she really wanted to see him, all she had to do was wake before dawn and walk among the silent stones of the village cemetery. She also knew perfectly well that running into him at such a time would hardly earn her a word from him. 

She'd often come just to watch him. In the months following Obito's death. 

Minato-sensei had been the one to tell her where she could find Kakashi, that he'd made it a daily morning ritual, communing with the dead. His father. His teammate who'd lost his life for him... 

Minato-sensei, who was now dead...

Rin was convinced that he was punishing himself. Standing there quietly with a slump before the gleaming black face of the memorial stone, uncovered eye glazed and absent-she could almost hear him reliving it all. Torturing himself. 

Which is why she could never bring herself to confront him. It would only accentuate just how far the divide had grown between them when he either said nothing or denied it. She had no ground to reach him with; low, middle, or high. He'd slipped farther and farther into the shadows, making himself untouchable, and she was left with nothing but the broken edged shades of her own recollection.

And, the longing.

Rin moaned quietly, pressing her face into her pillows, and rolled over in her sheets.

How often she tossed and turned when her thoughts carried themselves to Kakashi. Sometimes going so far as to leave her feeling hot and flustered.

It was almost a game that she played, toying with herself by indulging in thoughts of her quiet friend with the haunted, mismatched gaze. Thinking on him. Thinking on him until something infinitely secret and endlessly carnal awoke within her-and her thoughts on him took on an entirely different slant.

She started with remembering the few times she'd seen his face. Almost always with a squint of pain in his look, as the only times she'd ever really seen his face were when she'd been treating him with her medical ninjutsu. Even so, she'd always found the somewhat helpless lilt to his brows and the breathlessness of his open lips shamefully exciting. The way he would stiffen when she got close, dark lashes that were longer than a girl's flinching. 

Rin would, in these hot, dark, and sweaty imaginings, twist the memories of these moments slightly. Adjust them into moments of shyness or anticipation rather than actual pain or-as upsetting as it was, she had to acknowledge it-fear.

Now, she found her thoughts shifting from the narrow beauty of his face to other parts of him which she felt helpless to ignore. 

The marked, slightly uneven swagger of his gait. A characteristic engendered, he'd told her once, from his dad kicking him in the butt too hard one time when he was little and left the dogs out too long in the rain. Rin bit her lip, smiling a little at the memory. Her arms gathered the pillow closer to her body and she shifted her hips minutely. 

She thought about the way he always smelled so musky, something about the tantalizing smell of his skin and hair making her lips tingle. Whenever she was close to him she could hardly help but notice. He was a genius, a calculated and experienced fighter with skills that preceded him everywhere he stepped. Respected by men and women decades older than him, those that had found it in their hearts to not hold what Rin had come to know of as only 'the disgrace of my father' from the silver-haired boy. He was a legend.

But, he smelled like a hormone riddled teenage boy.

And she, barely a year and a half older than him, had always thought him beautiful. Not just cool, not just cute.

Beautiful.

With his graceful, silken and soft, way of speaking. The way he carried himself, as if he were trying to make himself smaller than he was. How she could never really be sure how true his smile was because he closed his eyes. Even the way he held his chopsticks, starting the meal with his grip towards the back but, with each rapid, untrackable bite, his fingers sliding closer to the front of the sticks.

Rolling her hips against the pillow she held tightly to her body, Rin closed her eyes and thought about the way the tips of Kakashi's ears were shaped. How they would flush with rosy pink whenever he was embarrassed. She thought about the slenderness of his neck, how his jawline was so sharp where it ducked towards his collarbones. 

One of Rin's hands slipped under the waistband of her panties. Stroked lower and lower as the focus of her imagining did the same.

Kakashi's shoulders were broad, and his chest was flat, hard muscle that, only recently seemed to have put on a little more bulk. No longer the waiflike frame of a little boy, puberty had been very kind to the Copy-Ninja, granting him a toned, lithe sort of edge to his body, arms, and legs that made Rin want to shove him up against a wall and run her hands over the taut, wicked contours of his body. 

"Mmnh." she breathed into her pillowcase, caressing herself slowly, a tense knot of heat building.

Rin imagined him lying behind her, the breathless pout of his full lips smearing against the back of her neck with a steamy exhalation of his breath. She pretended she could feel the careful creep of his long, elegant fingers as they traced the corner of her hip, then gripping her tightly. Rutting himself against her from behind, the feel of him-

-But no.

Kakashi would never do that.

Rin's imagination flopped, tripped over itself, clanged, twanged, and fizzled into an anti-climactic foray of jumbled thoughts and emotion. She groaned, hands raising to fist in her wispy brown locks, and she kicked her feet against the mattress in a heated display of frustration.

"Ughh."

The kunoichi rolled back onto her side, throwing the pillow she'd been cuddling across the room with a soft thump. 

Why did she keep playing this game with herself? 

...

* * *

 

...

"Hat this, slugger."

Genma slurred when he came up behind Kakashi on the dancefloor and pushed his bandana cap down roughly on the Copy-Ninja's head. The silver-haired teen turned his head to look at his friend, but was taken by surprise when the senbon-user's other hand swiftly yanked down his mask, Genma kissed him loudly on the cheek, and then stuffed a thick, half-smoked doobie between Kakashi's gasping lips. 

He choked, coughing out thick plumes of white smoke that blended with the shaggy sleekness of his silver hair, painted a kaleidoscope wash of flashing pink, green, and yellow from the strobe lights. 

They were on the first story, surrounded by a horde of dancing people. Bodies swiveled and thrashed to the beat around them. The girl who'd taken his hand earlier now danced on his front-side, tossing her hair and leaning into him with her body as she moved. Kakashi coughed as Genma pulled the doobie away, drinking from the cup in his hand, stale beer washing over his tongue, and jerked his mask back up.

Both the girl and the senbon-user were laughing at him. 

Oddly enough, Kakashi wasn't bothered by it. It felt good, for once, being noticed. He shook his head, eyes squinting, downy tendrils of hair fluffing, until Genma's cap fell off. 

"Cute." Genma sloshed some beer from his cup on Kakashi's toes when he bent to pick it up, "Sorry not sorry!"

He suddenly felt the prickle of a stare brushing his awareness from across the room.

Kakashi turned to see who it was, still laughing a little, only to feel his smile drop and his eyes widen when they connected with the dark, shadowy stare of his team captain. Kaede looked at him cooly from across the room of dancing people. Lifted one finger and pointed down in a gesture that didn't demand so much as state 'You're about to come over to me'.

The sixteen year old swallowed. Looked down at the drink in his hands, over to Genma and his dance partner, then back to Kaede again.

"Uhh..." he tapped the dancing girl on the shoulder before handing her his drink and nodding once to Genma, "Here. Gimme a sec."

 He waded through the music, flashing lights, smoke, and throngs of people dancing, coming to a halt right in front of his team captain.

"Kaede." The young jonin murmured the other's name, feeling the difference in height between them keenly. 

There was something about the posture and countenance to the older man that belied a consistent, barely withheld judgement. A sharpness to the brown irises ringed in a green so dark it was almost black, a sharpness that made it almost impossible not to squirm or shuffle one's feet when one was the subject of that dissecting gaze. Kakashi suddenly found that he desperately wanted to impress this man. To avoid whatever clinical and stinging judgement that seemed to hang between them like a soggy thundercloud.

How did people make themselves likeable? Would it even matter if he knew? Kakashi tried to straighten his posture, raising his chin a little defiantly as he stuck his shaking hands in his pockets.

"Fish." His captain replied cooly.

Kakashi fought the urge to roll his eyes. He could feel the beginnings of a stinky new nickname coming on...

"What, uh..." he trailed off, not wanting to say anything servile and baseless like 'What can I do for you?' or even 'What is it?'. Luckily, his ANBU squad captain cut him off with a heavy arm falling round his stiff shoulders.

"We're going to play a little game called 'Do What I Say'." Kaede bent in towards Kakashi to whisper deeply in his ear, raising goosebumps on the sixteen year old's neck, "Care to ask why?"

Kakashi swallowed, unconsciously trying to put a little more distance between them by slanting his shoulders awkwardly, and sighed when he failed.

"Why's that?"

 The older man's wide mouth split into a decidedly hungry grin and he squeezed Kakashi's bicep once.

"I've seen how you can move." he spoke right up against the boy's ear, making it buzz and tingle with nerves, "Let's see how pretty you sit still."

"Um."

A thousand questions flooded the new ANBU recruit's inebriated brain at once... Did Kaede mean literally? Kakashi looked about him to see if there was a stool, wondering if he'd been too juvenile with his dancing or something and embarrassed his new captain. The thought was miserable but all too utterly plausible. Kakashi didn't know how to dance, he just kind of...

His thoughts were distracted as Kaede, gripping the teen's shoulder firmly, turned him about like a door and began to walk him to the other side of the room slowly. Genma's brown eyes caught Kakashi's briefly as they passed in the crowd, some sharp emotion shining in them that the Copy-Ninja couldn't place. 

Kaede led him over to a corner in the room where the plaster walls had been covered with cork-board from floor to ceiling. It was frayed and dotted with holes, some the size of Kakashi's fist. A group of people were standing there when they arrived, sipping from their drinks and talking, but when Kaede stepped up to them he didn't have to say a word-they took one look at the tall, older man with the man-bun and dipped. Kaede's hard face split into a satisfied grin as they left.

Kakashi's stomach flipped. He wished he had something to hold with his hands.

Then, Kaede surprised him by grabbing his shoulders and backing him up against the cork-board wall slowly. The Copy-Ninja stiffened, looking up at his ANBU captain uncertainly from where he was being pressed against the wall. Kaede took a stealthy step closer, the music and lights fluttering over them through the smoke in a dreamy haze. Kakashi swallowed.

He wanted to shove Kaede's hands off him... He wanted to lean in closer.

He didn't want to do anything wrong. 

"Need something to do with your hands?" Kaede smirked against Kakashi's ear, making the boy turn his face away, heat rising in his ears and cheeks. What-

"-A or B. Choose."

A small crowd had begun to gather round. Kakashi frowned, hands slipping out of his pockets and spreading along the wall behind him a little nervously. Surely, his new ANBU captain wouldn't hurt him? Not in front of all these people... What had he done wrong?

"A. Or B." Kaede growled into his ear, making the sixteen year old recoil a little, "Choose. Or I choose for you and," the older man looked Kakashi up and down slowly, so slowly it made some people in the growing audience cheer and holler, "You may not like what I have in mind."

"A?"

Kaede moved fast, so fast he couldn't track it with his natural eye. Pulled his mask down. Kakashi gasped, hands flying up to cover his face, uncovered eye wide in shock and horror.

"Good." Said the older man, stepping back as he withdrew three kunai from his coat pocket, grinning, "Ah." he tsked when Kakashi moved to replace his mask, "Ah. Ah, Fish. Don't move. It's either your mask or your pants."

Kakashi froze, gaping at the older man from behind his sweaty palms and ungloved fingers. The people surrounding had begun to whisper, eyes traveling over his stiffened frame with curiosity. What was this? There seemed to be an air of anticipation building in the room. People were coming over from the dancefloor to watch.

Genma appeared suddenly at his side and smiled with a sympathetic, wry twist of his mouth.

"Seriously, babe." he said, dropping the rest of his doobie into a civilian's drink so casually the man didn't notice, "Don't doubt him. He had me do it bear fucking ass."

The Copy-Ninja's uncovered eye widened. No way! No way was he playing a part in some stupid game.

He was about to protest but was interrupted when Kaede stepped forward and bent downwards, grabbing one of Kakashi's slim, bandaged ankles and sliding it a little bit farther out-As if he were correcting the posture of a horse. The sixteen year old was blushing terribly behind his hands. The raucous shouts and whistles that followed this forcible adjustment were anything but encouraging. But, there was something worse, undeniably worse about it all that he couldn't rightly place.

A feeling. Stemming from his own embarrassment, it made his pulse race and his body begin to shake lightly. He was almost painfully aware of every inch of his being and, shit, that weed he'd smoked was really hitting too. Kakashi froze, not knowing fully what he was feeling. 

"Sit tight, Kakashi-kun." Kaede pinched the boy's hip and then backed up to the complete opposite side of the room, people clearing a wide berth between the older man and the Copy-Ninja hurriedly, laughing as they scattered.

It seemed he was about to take part in a spectacle of sorts. Maskless.

The silver-haired boy internally debated pulling his mask back up anyways, but he didn't want to start a fight. Plus, he really, really didn't want to end up naked.

"Yeah."

He breathed unsteadily.

When the first three kunai pierced the thick cork-board behind him-one at the juncture of his neck and shoulder, one just beside the hip that'd been pinched, and the other landing with a thwunk along the inside of his right ankle-Kakashi's breath hitched and it wasn't at all that he noticed.

Not until two heartbeats later.

With each powerful sling of the kunai, Kaede had thrown them with a curve. A curve that, each time, was so precisely fine-tuned that it tore neat, jagged holes through Kakashi's clothes. Splitting the fabric neatly along the sixteen year old's shirt and pants so that jagged pieces of his navy blue jounin outfit (he'd left his vest at home, still uncomfortable with the attention wearing it brought him because of his age) tore open. The Copy-Ninja felt cool air brush his shoulder as his long-sleeved shirt, nearly split in two, fell away, revealing his quarter-sleeve fishnet undershirt and bare skin past his nipple, almost all the way down his ribs. 

Kakashi squeezed his eyes closed horrified. Not even daring to move enough to see the damage that'd been done to his pants.

All around him all there were people laughing and cheering, whooping and clapping. Whistling and congratulating Kaede. Kakashi's ears were burning and his breath was a stifled hitching in his lungs.

Embarrassment didn't cover it. This was pure humiliation. 

Never had he been so exposed in front of so many people. And, against his will too. Overpowered. Dominated.

It made his stomach drop and his whole body tingle again with that strange, frightening emotion he couldn't fully decipher. He had to do something.

If he didn't-Kaede swiftly lobbed five more kunai with inhuman precision. They landed in a percussive drumming all around him. Kakashi flinched belatedly, and the sharp motion all of a sudden had him stumbling forwards a little and-to his complete and utter mortification-somehow, against all normalcy, stepping out of the tattered remains of his shirt and pants with a loud, poignant tear of fabric.

Kakashi cried out, furious, hands still covering his face as the audience hooted with laughter and catcalled him. He was down to his black boxer briefs and sandals. The rest of his clothes having been cut away.

"No!"

 One of his hands dropped to his waist, protectively hovering around the last piece of clothing he had left. And, Kakashi was so mad he was shaking.

What was this? Some sort of cruel, ANBU initiation-in front of all these people! It made him so angry, realizing that his friend Genma had already gone through this, and had done it completely naked from the get-go. It was unfair. It was wrong, he-

Kakashi made a decision. 

"Fish." Kaede said cooly, the still, unlaughing center in the midst of all the excited revelry, "Don't move... We're almost done." 

And, his dark-ringed eyes flitted down to Kakashi's crotch. A thin, pleased smile tilted the corner of his plush lips. Kakashi seethed, frowning furiously behind one hand, and steeled himself, all of his muscles tightening. He moved the hand covering his face.

Grabbed the metal plate of his hitae-ate, yanking it down-Kaede threw another volley of kunai at the teenager's hips not half a second later.

The Sharingan glowed, redder and brighter than the flickering of the strobe lights. Redder than blood.

_Clik-Clack-Clack-Clang!_

Kakashi panted where he stood, half crouched in his underwear, hitae-ate looped round his chin and neck, captured kunai in hand. The last three kunai that Kaede'd thrown rolled dully on the floor where they'd landed in a scatter about his feet.

The Copy-Ninja grinned behind his hand.

"Yooooo!"

Genma was running up to him, screaming, senbon jutting from the floor where it'd fell from his open mouth, his hands in cheering fists. His friend locked his arms tightly round Kakashi's fishnet-clad ribs and then tried to lift him into the air on his own, but was too drunk so they both fell down. People swarmed around them, everyone cheering and laughing, clapping their hands and screaming in excitement at what Kakashi had just done.

Apparently, it was a cool thing.

But, struggling weakly against Genma's impossible crush of a hug, Kakashi was still maskless and dressed only in his boxers, sandals, fishnet, and gloves. He was blushing hard and Obito's Sharingan had started to water, cool salty droplets beading down his cheek and slipping into his mouth. Two teardrops fell on Genma's broadly grinning, upturned face from where he lay beneath Kakashi, hugging the sixteen year old like he'd just saved his pet cat. 

"This my boy!" he cried, giving Kakashi's shaggy silver head a ferocious noogie as he shook him, "My BOY!"

And, then he kissed Kakashi on the lips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	2. Chapter Two

...

_Leverage_

...

_Flash Forwards_

The recycled air inside the ANBU's adjoining Municipal Building was dry and cold. It irritated his uncovered eye and made the ungloved tips of his fingers and his sandaled toes feel chapped. Kakashi stuffed his hands into his pockets, slouched with his back against the only shuttered window in the long hall that served as a waiting room. There were two rickety wooden chairs set against the wall opposite the steel door he was to enter, but he opted to stand.

He didn't want to be here.

From inside he heard the muffled rise and fall of voices, shuffling paper, then footsteps. He quickly fastened his down-turned gaze to one of the abstract paintings hanging in obfuscate cheeriness along the fluorescent lit hallway. It was smudged with broad strokes of brown, orange, and red. Looking at it made him angry.

The door across from him opened with a cool rush of displaced air. Kakashi tried to hold back a sneeze then failed, a bold shiver racing through his body immediately afterwards. He shook his head, overgrown silvery bangs tossing a little, and shifted his feet. He watched as a young, pin-eyed kunoichi laughed in a way that was at odds with the stagnant, uncomfortable look on her face, and waved at someone behind the door before hurrying down the corridor. A faint lump of dread began to collect in the hollow of his belly, but Kakashi let no outward indication of his uneasiness show. 

A middle-aged woman with long, frizzy brunette hair gathered into a multi-colored bandana and thin, oval shaped glasses stepped out. Looked around twice before seeing him slouched against the window. She seemed a little startled, but quickly smiled and bowed a little, offering her hand. The sixteen year old eyed the extended appendage warily.

So, she wasn't a ninja. The heavy lump in his stomach seemed to increase.

"Ah. Hatake-san." she said in a clear, clinical voice, blinking a little at his appearance, "There you are. Come, right this way."

He sighed inaudibly, shoulders slumping, and followed her slowly into the room. The door closed behind them with a whoosh like it'd been vacuum sealed.

...

* * *

 

...

_Flash Back_

"Rookies front and center."

Kakashi coughs a little awkwardly, looking around at the rest of his team lined up in the faded blue mist of a foggy late morning, and steps forwards. Arms straight at his sides.

The Copy-Ninja was the only rookie.

He casts a somewhat dubious glance at Kaede, who doesn't smile but waves the boy closer. They are all standing together in one of Konoha's outlying, abandoned training grounds. Prepping for the mission.

"I want you to know," Kaede says, "That we aren't going to run this how it's been laid out."

Kakashi says nothing, waiting for him to continue. His hands slip into his pockets.

"None of us know if we can trust you-" he starts, but is interrupted by Genma kicking the grass and muttering to himself from back in the line. Kaede's look hardens into a glare and pins on the senbon user.

"Problem?"

The air seems to chill several degrees. Kakashi glances over his shoulder at his friend, but Genma's shaking his head and rolling his eyes at the grass, arms crossed.

"Nuthin." the capped young man mumbles, shrugging, but Kakashi thinks he sees a faint glimpse of worry shining in the senbon-user's eyes. 

Kaede's touching him suddenly, large hand gripping Kakashi's chin between his fingers, and jerks his head back around to front. The Copy-Ninja's eyes narrow to slits. Kaede makes a noise that could almost pass for laughter.

"See?" he growls, dropping Kakashi's face roughly, "That's what I'm talking about. You've got a little rebel in you."

The sixteen year old's eyes widen at this. Never had he ever been anything less than obedient to another team leader. Unless...

Was his new ANBU captain talking about his mission to Kanabi bridge? He'd been the chunin in charge of his teammates then, and had gone against shinobi protocol to save Rin's life. It was common practice for captains to pull files on new recruits, and Kakashi had dreaded the subject ever coming up. Finding himself in his father's position, defending a decision that'd gone against everything they'd ever been taught as a shinobi-and a decision that had ultimately resulted in the death of one of his teammates... It was something out of a nightmare.

Kakashi stiffened and forgot to breathe. 

Kaede grinned jaggedly, lids lowering uncompromisingly, and he took a step closer to Kakashi, leaning forwards to whisper in his ear.

"A little trace of mutt in you. Likes to gnaw the collar a bitch." Kaede scoffed, making Kakashi's ears tingle with heat a little as he heard his teammates break out into laughter behind him.

 'Listen up. I'm not going to explain this twice.' he said, 'You've passed your ANBU entrance exams, I'll give you that. But, as far as I'm concerned you failed my preliminary test last night.'

The Copy-Ninja's eyes widened in surprise. He leaned back a little, uncomfortable with the closeness between him and his captain. Test?

Kaede seemed to sense the teen's discomfort. A decidedly unimpressed look crossed the man's wide features, he stared down at Kakashi with not a little amount of disgust. The rest of the team grew thoroughly quiet behind them. A bird broke out in sharp cawing from the treetops overhead. 

"That's right, fish." he drawled, earning a reluctant cringe from the Copy-Ninja, "Remember when I told you to 'sit pretty' and you didn't?"

Memories from last night rose buoyantly to the forefront of Kakashi's mind, bringing with them a curious blend of emotion he didn't have time to process.

"That..." the silver-haired boy said, disbelievingly, "Was a test?"

 Kaede looked down at him blankly.

"Are you impaired?"

The Copy-Ninja said nothing, only following the other's expressions curiously. Chakra threaded the air between them in tense, invisible knots. He found himself leaning forwards ever so slightly on his toes. Was Kaede about to lose a limb?

"Punk ass lil bitch. Go home."

Kakashi rocked on his heels, uncovered eye widening in shock.

"What?"

But Kaede was already turning away. The others had grown painfully and awkwardly silent behind him. A restless wind tossed a few errant, dry leaves over his shoulders.

"Kaede..." Kakashi staggered a step after him, gloved hand reaching out to grab his shoulder. But, before his fingers could connect, his hand was knocked aside with a rapid flash of movement.

"Don't touch me. Fish." Kaede bit out his words, staring up into the gently swaying boughs of the trees lining the clearing, "Get gone."

Kakashi looked back at his team and found them to all be staring in different directions. Shuffling their feet.

He turned back around, feeling helpless and embarrassed.

"Kaede, I..." his voice caught before it could shake and he swallowed, "I'm sorry."

'If there's anything I've done to make you feel like you can't trust me, if there's anything at all--I am here and ready to serve as your subordinate."

His team captain's lips twisted. Kaede looked solemnly back through shuttered eyes over his shoulder. Sighed.

"So, that's it then? You done?"

Kakashi's gut twisted. He stood stiffly and said nothing. Kaede scoffed, turning forwards completely and began to walk towards the trees.

"This is your last chance." The ANBU captain said, "You either get smart or get the fuck off. Understand?"

Not fully understanding, but wanting desperately to play his part and to earn the respect of his team, Kakashi nodded sharply.

"Sir."

His teammates stepped up beside him, one by one springing high into the canopy of the encroaching forest. Genma gave him a commiserating grimace and ruffled the Copy-ninja's hair easily before leaping into the trees. Kakashi sighed, shoulders drooping.

He followed his teammates as they quickly zigzagged through the branches, an uncertain slant to his uncovered eye.

...

* * *

 

...

 


End file.
